What follows is not a short battle report of the following : EN24 Article http://evenews24.com/2013/02/11/wormhole-adventures-exhaled-razes-down-unknown-s-home-c6-system/
REPERCUSSIONS
Cause and effect – the inescapable universal law that we all believe in whether we are atheists, devout believers or just plain old “I-don’t-care-type-of-guys”. Even though EVE is a game this same law of causality applies. The decisions you make in this game can have consequences to not only you, but several other people around you in the game. This is archetype and definition of the sandbox gameplay of EvE. The line members and powers that be in an alliance called U_N_K_N_O_W_N (KNOW) learned that choices made, however innocent they might be, can have unwanted repercussions down the line.
Prelude to a Requiem
Daily wormhole life commonly consists of a lot of scanning and idling. That is what it is mostly about - spiced up with a generous dose of cloaking. Rarely does one get to experience space battles were two fleets battle it out like two noble warriors believing in some kind of Bushido code. In general wormhole PvP is a bit like MMA fighting. Punch the other guy in the mouth – elbow him on the temple and walk away with the occasional good fight (=gf) comment thrown. Similarly events in wormholes also revolve around few minutes of utter carnage. Occasionally though events are set in motion that lead to a complex maze of maneuvers that resemble a form of a well-orchestrated space ballet with a tinge of chaos in between.
On a relatively uneventful Thursday 7th february an Exhale. director was scanning and idling in-game as well as in our Teamspeak (TS) server. What he saw in our TS server was a non-alliance member that had logged in to the Lobby. He quickly recognized the name as belonging to a member of a corp that used to be a part of Exhale – Timber Wolves (TW). Dragging him to private channel the events that would lead to a C6 system being razed and purged were set in motion. The TW director informed our contact that their home system was being sieged and burned. After a sufficiently detailed discussion which included intelligence about the defending forces, attacking forces and fleet composition the details were relayed to alliance leadership. As the negotiations between TW and Exhale. continued the first POS entered reinforced mode on 7th February 20:14 Eve time (ET). As of yet it is unknown how or when KNOW managed to infiltrate a sieging force of about ten dreadnoughts, a carrier and a about 20 to 30 subcaps into the TW system. In the opposite side, the TW side, three Dreadnoughts, three Carriers, one Bhaalgorn and less than ten other pilots.
Enter the Ninja
“Dwelling in the far depths of the void, our wormhole warmachine ebbs and flows through chains originating from our homesystem - our stronghold. Pathfinding always starts with a scanning ship transversing our class six static, then two, five more, finding and creating connections, traversing through dozens of systems. When the chain is fully scanned our scouts linger, probes hidden; hunters wait. When the order is given and the fleet goes back to the stronghold, the chain collapses, the cycle renews.”
- Exhale. Codex, Space Poet Cuervo Harr
A routine scanning operation had just begun, with the covert ops ships being dispersed down the chain. We wanted a way into that system. Alliance mails were sent and fleet compositions and destination were announced on TS. The destination was going to be a wormhole from a nullsec system that could serve as backdoor to the TW system, upon which siege had been laid.
The first k-space connections were not of any use, the exits all too far. One such connection even went as far as the Eve constellation. These efforts were however in vain as KNOW took rigid control of the sieged system, closing the null connection and cycling the static. It would be later, deep in US timezone and with dwindling KNOW numbers, that scouts ventured down TW chain and provided an entry for the first Exhale fleet which included US timezone members from Obstergo (XWX), (DEEP) and Explorer Corps (EXCRP). Their objective would be to engage the hostiles on the first timer of the first pos, 24 hours later.
A second fleet was formed on the next day during early EU timezone with the plan to achieve penetration into target system and join forces with XWX/DEEP//EXCRP/TW to jump on the hostile force as they were attacking towers. This support fleet came hours too late as KNOW both had eyes on TW static and the fleet numbers to compete for wormhole control , thus making any attempt to get a scanning party into the chain unseen impossible. Additionally deploying scouts into the chain presented the enemy an opportunity to lock our scouts out.
At the same time a crucial event played out that could be defined as a crossroads. Apparently a diplo of KNOW was in contact with officials of Exhale. – how this communication came to be established and on whose initiative it happened will remain in the dark and murky chambers of DiploMagic land. It was noted during the first fleets insertion that an ever vigilant (read: sleepless) russian scout that had stayed awake into the US tz had seen some of the US tz guys whilst they were infiltrating into the TW system. Nonetheless , something transpired in that communication that led to KNOW establishing tight wormhole control on EU tz as we were about to move our fleet towards an entrance. Coincidence or luck? Either way , that made it impossible to get into target system.
Our FC described their actions later as “Panic-collapsing”. Although this might have been a prudent measure by KNOWn it caused the fleet commanders of Exhale. to devise another plan. We knew that the attacking entity had deployed a sizable capital force into the TW system which was a C5. There are 512 C5-systems and we contemplated rolling from several C5-C5 systems simultaneously to get a direct K162 into the target system, KNOWs system or any other home systems of the invading alliances.That was decided to be a too slim chance to get in - not to mention the logistical difficulties involved in that approach. Amidst the heated planning in a moment of clarity the magic words: “Let’s invade U N K N O W N s home system” were spoken.
The Raze
The decision had been made - there are only 113 C6 systems and rolling from a C6-C6 wormhole gives 5 to 6 times better odds of finding KNOW. And so we rolled - using advanced database hacking algorithms and with proper usage of Amarrian sacrificial rituals that involved many unlucky Minmatar slaves we attempted to increase our chances of getting a beachhead into KNOWs home. Amidst the silent hacking sounds and the terrified screams of the Minmatar slaves our forward scouts reported back: “This is it -WE FOUND IT”. Frantic calls for the invasion fleet were made and in a matter of seconds our static hole – our beachhead into their system had a protective cocoon of a HIC bubble around it. For such an occasion, wormhole entities such as us, prepare Invasion KitsTM. Such a Kit generally contains a Control Tower, POS modules, fuel, ammo, cyno ships and exotic dancers (only, we did forget the cynoships, and someone parted with the dancers) - the essential toolkit for operating and delivering wanton destruction in a hostile environment. Our towers went up in the KNOW system as the rest of the fleet established wormhole control. Final checks were made that the Invasion KitsTM contained all the essentials and then the command was given : “Second dreadnought – you’re cleared to jump in”. The combined mass of the sub-capital fleet with two dreadnoughts was enough to collapse the wormhole. Our leadership reminisced later that it seems that: “.. as the connection collapsed behind us, KNOWs courage and will to fight collapsed with it”.
There were no further attempts to wrench wormhole control from us, not even when we had only four pilots online in the system. One of the FC’s mentioned that he was shot by a subcapital ship only once during the weekend - a bit of an anticlimax to say the least. Simultaneously the dreaded SD marathon had begun: massive amounts of ships including capitals, T3 cruisers and assorted other ships were blown up.
(Wrecks, Wrecks everywhere).
Our scouts tried to keep track of all of them but the tears in their eyes from seeing so many beautiful capitals and T3 cruisers destroyed in such a shameful way obscured their vision and boggled their minds. Those ships deserved better. That disgrace however did not deter us - we are professionals at what we do and proceeded to methodically reinforce all of the system and then destroy the POS’s one by one. It is impossible to evaluate how much in ISK value was destroyed but most likely the figure approaches 100 billion ISK in total.
As ever structure shooting is not fun neither in null nor wormholes. Some fun was had however when five minutes after a warp caged POS was destroyed the CEO of a corp loged in his Loki and landed amidst the bubbles: Loki http://www.exhale.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=16323082%20. Additional fun was had when a expensive Cheetah tried to make a run for it that led to its demise – noteworthy are the large rigs on the ship meaning it had survived quite some time: http://www.exhale.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=16321735 Ancient Cheetah.
The exodus
Meanwhile in the TW system events were unfolding in a very different way. The hostile force had managed to get additional reinforcements into TW system and had established solid wormhole control during their time zone after which they proceeded to relentlessly reinforce all of the system. KNOWN had brought friends with them: Jedi Path, BLOOD UNION, Hell Gate Alliance, Crit line and even members of Red Overlord were rumoured to be in system. It seems many had joined forces with KNOW to help them to destroy the system. At that time point the decision was made to withdraw essential (read: expensive) assets; as the russian time zone dwindled in strength, US tz took wormhole control and made an evac possible that enabled TW to get most of their valuable assets out of the hole as well as all their capital ships. A Lot of equipment was abandoned to the whims of the loot fairy and the hands of the invaders. Once evacuation of the most essential assets was complete the US tz forces concentrated on getting into to KNOWs home system to get the bitter taste of evacuation out of their mouths. We wanted blood - a system for a system.
WORMHOLE CONTROL
We brought reinforcements into the now besieged home system of KNOW. With a sizable subcapital and capital force deployed into to KNOW system the god of destruction - Moros and his demigod little brother, the Revelation started burning through enemy structure hitpoints to reinforce them. Once the dust had settled, the dreads were sent back to the pos’s and the never ending marathon of trying to maintain wormhole control begun. In this occasion we had a full enemy fleet away wanting to come back after they burnt TW. All the while our own resupply ships were busy bringing in ammo, strontium and exotic dancers into KNOW system - the essentials of any warmongering fleet.
(Supply ship and his escort ships of doom)There’s a feeling of desperation not being able to get reinforcements back into your home system knowing that every time you try to sneak by, eyes will be on your back and the static collapsed behind you, knowing that someone is ever awake, hidden in a cloaked covert ops ship with skills, training, motivation and equipment as good as yours, or possibly better, supported by a group of pilots waiting at a pos, fleeted up, ready. This feeling is only achieved if every enemy action immediately produces a reaction. KNOW performed admirably in the TW system .They achieved wormhole control in russian tz in TW system by collapsing their statics and the eventual K162 the very minute they formed, by uncloaking covops ships 100-200km off the static and dropping a new set of probes, by having a fleet continuously logged in, well out of reach of the few skirmishers we could have mustered.
But KNOW left some gaps in their guard. We managed to sneak in XWX,DEEP and EXCRP fleet after all.
This is what we achieved with KNOW, what ultimately broke them.
And this was the work of those pilots that kept harassing KNOW around the clock, fighting up and down the chain, collapsing, reinforcing, bubbling, drafting industrials to bring extra strontium and ammo.
Exhale. was there when it mattered.
K162
The K162 were inevitable. The rumour of our invasion had spread, and by chance or will we found our fleet facing an unknown one at the other side of a C6. Scouts report Bite me Inc. Their scouts have seen us and jumped back. Both fleets are at zero, the Dreadnoughts looming some kilometers off.
In the end, the standoff did not happen, they never engaged, not this time nor on each of the two other occasions we happened to cross paths during the op. We’re only expecting fights from Bite Me Inc on overwhelming odds.
However an Abaddon jumped through and to its demise, piloted by Cybus of Bitten.
http://exhale.eve-kill.net/?a=kill_detail&kll_id=16331199
We graciously offered his pod a path to highsec, an offer which he accepted. One of our FC’s commented later that apparently Cybus forgot to say “thanks” and given the chance he would reconsider the offer of letting him out. This one goes into the Book of Strife.
Crossroads
Remember the crossroads we discussed earlier? The KNOW choice of opening and diplo communication with us which apparently lead to them maintaining wormhole control in TW system? Although it is highly speculative it seems that this choice cost them their home system. Despite the hurfblurf in EVE-O forums about a pre-planned invasion this was not one. The simple act of right-clicking on our director on Friday and opening a convo with him led to this - we could not get in TW system, we decided to invaded their home. Had he not done that they would have probably been oblivious to our role in TW’s system defense and only lost their forward deployment force of 20 subcaps and assorted capital ships. Now they have no home system and must rebuild again. We as an alliance hope and encourage them to rebuild their home. They had the courage to attack another system in wormhole space which takes skill, determination and balls of steel. Wormhole space needs more alliances like that – only next time they will hopefully have learned not to leave their home system unguarded.
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